Welcome to my new newsletter, Right On Time. A newsletter about syncing up with your own timing and letting go of the pressure to “should” your way forward.
If you’re receiving this, it’s because you signed up to my Substack, Rhythm & Recognition.
Each edition of Right On Time shares stories and lessons from real coaching sessions with clients and deep conversations with my peers. Hopefully these lead to your own insights and moments of clarity.
As the world speeds up, we need more places to pause. I hope this becomes one of those places for you.
The Trainer Who Was Doing It All
A few months back, I worked with a trainer who came to me because her fitness business felt stuck.
She’d been running bootcamps for a couple of years and had a few loyal clients who kept coming, but the classes weren’t growing.
I had a hunch about what might be the problem, but we started with talking about what she was currently trying to do to grow her classes.
She shared that she wasn’t doing a lot so the other members of the group (this was group coaching) chimed in with some helpful things that had worked for them.
Her response:
“I’m too busy.”
And she was.
In fact, her schedule was packed:
She was doing all the bookkeeping for the family business, volunteering at her kids sporting clubs, helping to run the school committee, helping wherever she was asked.
From the moment she got up in the morning until about an hour before she went to bed, she was doing something for someone else.
The Block
Straight away I knew that her sheer busy-ness was what was causing her lack of growth, but she was resistant to hearing that.
After all… all of these things she was doing were important. Someone had asked her to help.
And then we discovered that she’s a Projector in Human Design. Projectors love being asked to help, but they don’t have infinite energy and so it’s important they’re discerning in what they say yes to.
When I described being a Projector to her she brushed it off, she resonated much more with what I’d said about Manifesting Generators.
“Yes, that’s me! The Manifesting thingo, not the Projector. I have lot’s of things going on.”
A couple weeks passed by and it was time for our next session. She appeared on the group Zoom looking serious. She said she’d had a realisation: while the Manifesting Generators in the group talked about being busy and feeling energised, she shared that her schedule left her busy and exhausted.
Not just physically tired, but carrying a deep fatigue that comes from saying yes to too many things that don’t give you energy.
The Human Design Insight
Projectors are often recognised for their ability to get things done because they can be very efficient.
She’d built a whole life around being dependable, capable, the one who would always say Yes. The problem was, she was being valued for her output, whereas Projectors are best valued for their insight.
Once she saw that, things started to shift.
She began saying no to the commitments that drained her and made more room for the work that genuinely energised her. She blew me away actually at how quickly she let go of things that were draining her.
It wasn’t easy. Saying no meant disappointing people who had come to rely on her. But in doing so she created space for what was next for her.
Reflection For You
Spend some time journaling or mulling over these questions.
- Generators/MGs: Where are you saying yes just because it feels nice to be asked, but otherwise doesn’t light you up?
- Projectors: Where are you being recognised for what you do rather than what you see?
- Everyone: Is there something in your work that’s not growing simply because you’re too full to nurture it?
- And what might you need to let go of you give yourself a little more space?
Feel free to reply to these emails, I love hearing how these reflections have helped.
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